The 7 Day Fashion Challenge
Toss Your Sweats and Adorn Yourself for a Week…It May Change Your Mental Outlook
Are you out there?
I feel terribly vulnerable posting this recent image of me…
Are you like me, stuck at home and out of work during the pandemic? Trolling the digital want-ads every day in a pair of baggy sweats and an old t-shirt? Or maybe you are working but the home office means no more suit and tie so you’ve consigned yourself to a pair of old swim trunks ‘cuz it’s hot in your apartment now that they’ve turned the heat on for the season?
For me, I am also battling a chronic well-being issue so sometimes just getting my teeth brushed is a triumph. Other days are much better but my dark roots are still showing at about an inch of brown on either side of my part and I still don’t seem to do better than my sweats and a pink “Coffee Days and Wine Nights” tee.
So, I propose a challenge. Fashion psychology is boring into my very soul lately. In fact, I’ve an idea to-
Well, it’s a little too early to think about that. A little more prep work and studying first. I’ve been reading fashion psychology text and memoirs that are subject adjacent every day lately (audio books for the vestibular migraine challenged, tag: me). Plus, I have always been someone who enjoys dressing up. So…
The challenge is this: for one solid week, starting on Monday, I throw down the gauntlet of fashion before you all. Ditch the drab-wear and spend the next seven days adorning yourself in the best your closet has to offer, all whilst hanging out in your living room. Be full of self expression.
Now, I get it. You can’t make dinner in a chiffon gown and if you have little ones in the house…need I say more? So, do it for however long you can get away with it for the day. Do it for an hour or two even. Just do it.
Makeup (or not, if you’re not a makeup person), jewelry, and your BEST clothes. I’m talking full on cocktail dress, the gorgeous dress you wore once to a wedding three years ago and never again because where else demands that kind of formal wear?
Satin trousers, gabardine suit in maroon, the wristwatch your father gave you for graduation day, all of it…the way you’d dress to impress yourself, a party of one, that matches the poshest part of your soul.
You can post comments here and then I will write a followup article next week with what we’ve collectively learned.
How did it make you feel? Did you behave differently? Feel differently about yourself? Any surprises? Anything from left field?
Want to be part of the experiment? I can’t do it alone. I mean, I can but it won’t be ANY fun whatsoever and what kind of an experiment-of-one ever produces quantifiable results?
Oh, also….a few pictures as evidence would be great too. Nothing NSFW please! Think of it like picture day at school but for grownups. Combed hair, beard cream, eye shadow, dress, suit…As I recently said, it’s your gig. How do you want to greet the day? What makes you, you?
Join me, ay?
Yours truly,
Vivie Valentina M.
